NEWS TICKER, FRIDAY, JULY 31ST: US bond markets expect a $900m issue from the Metropolitan St. Louis Sewer District as early as next year after its rate commission voted yesterday to back the district’s plan to tap the markets. The bonds will continue financing a $4.7bn capital program required by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to keep sewers in St. Louis and St. Louis County from regularly overflowing into area creeks and rivers. Already, the district has put $600m toward sewer projects in St. Louis and St. Louis County. MSD customers can consequently continue to expect annual sewer bill hikes each summer. In 2012, the average customer paid $29 monthly. This month, bills rose to an average of $41. After this bond issue, the monthly sewer bill will cost the average household $61 by 2019 - JP Morgan has hired Lebo Moropa, giving the bank its first dedicated prime brokerage and equity finance presence in South Africa, reports Securities Lending Times. Former HSBC trader Moropa has joined the bank in Johannesburg and will focus on synthetic and cash prime brokerage and securities lending, including delta one and will report to Paul Farrell in London. Moropa was a delta one trader at HSBC and has worked for JP Morgan before– Apulia Finance has informed the Luxembourg Stock Exchange of its intent to issue a securitised paper, backed by residential mortgage loans originated by Banca Apulia. The issue date is August 6th and the deal is lead managed by BNP Paribas who is also joint arranger with Finanziaria Internazionale Securitisation Group. Swap counterparty in the transaction is Canadian Imperial Bank of Canada and the clearers are Euroclear and Clearstream. Funding is at three month Euribor with a spread of 0.40% before the step up date and 0.80% after the step up date. The deal is worth a combined €170m of which €153m are Class A asset backed floating rate notes due 2043; €6.79m Class B asset backed notes and €9,84m are Class C asset backed floating rate notes – all due 2043.

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Commodity ETPs in demand as China outlook Improves

Wednesday, 09 July 2014

Commodity ETPs in demand as China outlook ImprovesGlobal Commodity ETPs saw a second consecutive quarter of inflows in Q2 2014, as increasing confidence in China’s economic outlook and global economic recovery boosted commodity prices and investor demand for commodity exposure. Inflows totalled $275m, up from $271m of inflows in Q1 2014. The combination of inflows and higher prices pushed assets under management (AUM) in commodity ETPs at the end of Q2 2014 to $123.3bn from $122.4bn at the end of Q1 2014.http://www.ftseglobalmarkets.com/

Global Commodity ETPs saw a second consecutive quarter of inflows in Q2 2014, as increasing confidence in China’s economic outlook and global economic recovery boosted commodity prices and investor demand for commodity exposure. Inflows totalled $275m, up from $271m of inflows in Q1 2014. The combination of inflows and higher prices pushed assets under management (AUM) in commodity ETPs at the end of Q2 2014 to $123.3bn from $122.4bn at the end of Q1 2014.

] “All key commodity sectors saw inflows during the quarter except for agriculture and livestock. Precious metals saw the strongest investor demand with $430m of inflows, followed by diversified broad commodity ETPs with $172m, energy with $135m and industrial metals with a more modest $15m. Agriculture and livestock saw $477m of outflows. Increasing confidence in the US recovery, a positive turn in China growth after three years of slowdown, and expected further easing measures by China’s policy-makers has boosted prices and investor sentiment towards commodities,” says Nicholas Brooks, head of research and investment strategy at ETF Securities.

Commodity ETPs with the strongest demand in Q2 were platinum and palladium, with $400m and $410m of inflows respectively. Rising global auto demand (autocatalysts are a key source of demand for both metals) together with rising supply concerns due to mine strikes in South Africa and potential Russia export restrictions has exacerbated fears that already large supply deficits will worsen and has pushed prices higher for both metals. We anticipate these trends will continue in H2.

Gold ETPs saw mixed flows, with US listed gold ETPs seeing $586m of outflows while Europe and other country listed gold ETPs saw $483m of inflows, leading to net quarterly outflows of $103m. Most of the divergence in the gold ETP flow trends took place in April. The most likely explanation for the divergence is that during that period European investors were focusing on the close-to-home potential risks of a Russian invasion of the Ukraine, while US investors mostly maintained their bullish view on risk assets as US equities continued to hit new highs. With geopolitical risks still high and many risky asset classes trading at stretched valuations, we believe gold ETP demand will continue to improve in H2 2014 as investors look for hedges against possible risk market corrections.

Diversified broad commodity ETPs saw the largest inflows after platinum and palladium, with total inflows of $172m in Q2. The inflows reflect improving sentiment towards commodities as an asset class as China growth has shown signs of picking up and China policy-makers have made clear they are moving into stimulus mode after three years of tightening. It is interesting to note that the largest inflows were into diversified broad commodity ETPs that exclude agriculture, with $89m of new flows into these ETPs versus $75m into those that include agriculture, highlighting generally negative investor views towards agriculture.

Agriculture ETPs as a group saw $468m of outflows, with broad diversified seeing the largest outflows followed by sugar, corn, cocoa and coffee. The outflows are likely a combination of profit-taking and expectations of improved growing conditions for a number of key agriculture commodities. If an El Nino weather event occurs later this year (current NOAA forecasts put the probability at 70%), speculative flows may return.